ACCRA, Dec 9- Opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo won Ghana's national election, becoming president elect at the third attempt and cementing the country's reputation as a standard bearer of democracy in a region that has been blighted by civil wars and coups. Akufo-Addo defeated President John Mahama by 53.8 percent to 44.4 percent, electoral commissioner...

Dec 9- President-elect Donald Trump said on Friday he would name Andrew Liveris, chairman and chief executive of Dow Chemical Co, to head the Manufacturing Council, a private sector group that advises the U.S. secretary of commerce.

WASHINGTON, Dec 9- The U.S. Senate was preparing to pass a government spending bill on Friday evening after Democrats from coal states announced they would not risk a government shutdown by continuing to delay the vote. Many government services and operations would have been closed or suspended starting at midnight if the Senate did not pass a series of...

The primary disputes in Friday afternoon's testimony were whether traditional Medicare, which is managed by the government, competes with Medicare Advantage, run by insurers, and whether Aetna pulled out of some public Obamacare exchanges out of anger after the department filed its lawsuit. The government has shown that once a person signs up for Medicare...

Dec 9- Please note the Reuters story published on Friday with the keyword slug USA- CONGRESS/ and the headline " U.S. Senate wrangles over miners' benefits, gov't shutdown looms," will going forward carry the slug: USA- CONGRESS/SPENDING.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.— A California judge rejected pimping charges Friday against the operators of a major international website advertising escort services that the state attorney general has called the "world's top online brothel," citing federal free speech laws. California Attorney General Kamala Harris had charged Backpage.com CEO Carl Ferrer and...

Dec 10- For other diaries, please see: Top Economic Events Polling unit diary Today in Washington Political and general news. DATE TIME COUNTRY AMOUNT AUCTION DETAILS. 12- Dec United Sale of 3- year notes.

NEW YORK, Dec 9- Arista Networks Inc used rival Cisco Systems Inc's network device technology in its ethernet switches without permission, a U.S. trade judge ruled on Friday, handing Cisco yet another win in a sprawling legal battle over patents between the two companies. The judge, MaryJoan McNamara of the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, said...

NEW YORK, Dec 9- The Beechwood group of reinsurance companies is in talks to sell most or all of itself after a backlash from some clients due to its relationship with troubled hedge fund manager Platinum Partners, according to a person familiar with the situation. The Bermuda-, Grand Cayman- and New York- based firm has been working to sever its links with Platinum...

Cuba suffers from some of the world's slowest internet speeds due to a range of problems that include the convoluted, and thus slower, paths that data must travel between Cuban users and servers that are often in the U.S. Cuban officials appear to be accelerating their approvals of deals with U.S. companies in an attempt to build momentum behind U.S.- Cuba...

Owning Sky would give Fox, whose cable networks include Fox News and FX, subscription revenue from a pay-TV network spanning 22 million households in Europe, a market which has not been as affected as the United States by cord-cutters who drop cable subscriptions in favor of online subscription services. What Fox does with the technology and expertise that Sky...

NEW YORK, Dec 9- A private U.S. regulator launched a hotline on Friday to hear from ex-Wells Fargo& Co employees who were fired for allegedly opening unauthorized accounts after news reports that the bank may have retaliated by terminating whistleblowers in the scandal. Federal regulators ordered the San Francisco- based bank to pay $190 million in fines and...

WASHINGTON— President-elect Donald Trump shut down some of his companies in the days after the election, including four that appeared connected to a possible Saudi Arabia business venture, according to corporate registrations in Delaware. News of the move comes days before Trump was expected to describe changes he is making to his businesses to avoid...

NEW YORK/ LONDON, Dec 9- Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox Inc has struck a preliminary deal to buy the 61 percent of British pay-TV firm Sky Plc it does not already own for around $14 billion, five years after a political scandal wrecked a previous bid. People familiar with the matter said Fox had pounced after Britain's vote to leave the European Union in...

David Demos, 35, was charged with securities fraud in an indictment filed in federal court in New Haven, Connecticut, becoming the latest trader to face charges for cheating customers on prices of mortgage-backed securities. Prosecutors said Demos, a trader and managing director at Cantor Fitzgerald from November 2011 to February 2013, defrauded customers...

BATON ROUGE, La./ WASHINGTON, Dec 9- U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he was considering imposing a lifetime ban on U.S. military procurement officials going to work for defense contractors, a move that could dramatically reshape the defense industry. Three days after publicly rebuking Boeing Co over the cost of the next-generation Air Force One...